Next New Book

The first part of this year has been extremely busy. I sometimes think I’m working harder now than when I had a nine-to-five, and I have no one to blame but myself.

I just published my third book, a general fiction short-story collection entitled, “Tinker.”

As a teaser, here’s the first two paragraphs of the lead story:

I was eleven when my dog Tinker died. He hadn’t been sick or anything like that. Far from it. If he had been, I might have seen his passing as a blessing and an end to his torment. But he was only five years old, in the prime of his dog-years life. He’d been chasing a Frisbee, his tongue hanging out and his mouth open in a big, lolling doggie grin when he was hit by a car, right in front of my eyes.

In the days that followed, I was struck by the way grief, relief and guilt could co-exist in such a cozy fashion. I cried my eyes out as I carried his broken body back to the house. “Omigod, Dad, Tink’s hurt bad!”

Now, like before, comes the hard part. Marketing. It’s something I’ve been thinking about lately … a lot. I spent my whole working career in public relations and marketing, and a lot of people think it might be something second nature to me by now.

It isn’t.

The more I think about it, the worse my headache becomes.

I’ve come to the conclusion, after reading the advice of all the online “professionals” out there, and seeing where publishing has been heading for the past several years, that I’d be much better off just asking you for feedback.

What have you liked about what I’ve written?

I know that’s a bit presumptuous, assuming you’ve purchased one of my books … but if you have done so – what did you like about it? Perhaps a better question might be, what didn’t you like?

I don’t seem to be getting much feedback here. Comments are posted infrequently.

Perhaps you have negative comments and don’t want to hurt my feelings. Trust me … you won’t. How will I ever improve, if you don’t tell me where I’m making mistakes? How can I make my writing better, if you don’t tell me about the parts you found difficult to follow? Or totally insipid?

The best possible marketing I could do is to find out what you think. I need you to tell your friends about my books. Let them give me some advice, too. Share this post with them.

I just started my fourth book, another novel, so I’ll have some time between brain spasms to actually respond to your comments. Whattaya say? Care to let me work a bit?

I promise to answer. In fact, I’m looking forward to it.

You can post comments here to start a discussion, or leave them on my work email: ron@ronaldherron.com.